


Red For The Cancer

by IxJustxLaugh



Category: Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cancer, M/M, Possible smut, kellic - Freeform, sick kellin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 04:52:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1115739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IxJustxLaugh/pseuds/IxJustxLaugh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kellin’s diagnosis is grim. Seventeen years old and no chance of making it to the big one-eight. He had finally made peace with it, accepted it one might say, but then in the blink of an eye everything changes when two brothers transfer to his high school.One is his age, and the other is a couple years ahead of them, and he just can’t seem to let Kellin alone.</p><p>*Disclaimer: I do not swear so all of my swears are censored by asterisks. It's not as annoying as it sounds I promise.*<br/>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chemo blues

**Author's Note:**

> So a lot of things like the description and tags might change, but I wanted to go ahead and get this story out because I am aching to post it. I hope you all like it and can sense my foreshadowing. Hope you all don't hate me too much.

             “That’s rough man, I couldn’t imagine that,” The shaggy haired, tattoo covered, gage eared boy sitting beside me empathized. I think his name was Justin, I couldn’t remember I was feeling a little drained.

            “Well, you are here, don’t you have a story too?” I asked using my IV free hand to brush my hair back, it was bothering me the way it was sticking to my damp forehead.

            “Yeah, I mean I do, but nothing as tragic as finding out on my sweet sixteen,” he stopped as if his words might offend me, when he saw that they didn’t he kept going, “I was just playing with my old band and I hit the floor. We broke up when they found out why.”

            I rubbed the same hand across my face unsure what to say at first. “You’re much nicer than I’d expect a punk to be. Unless you’re just being an a**hole. Regardless, that’s really s*****. Why’d they do that?”

            Now it was his turn to fidget; I leaned forward, shifting in my seat, and I almost told him he didn’t have to answer. It’s not like I cared either way, we had just stuck up a conversation ten minutes ago because the silence was worse than the f****** annoying IV.

            But he leaned forward almost all the way out of his chair and said, about an octave lower, “They just couldn’t stop looking at me like I was contagious. I told them it wasn’t like I had f****** aids or something.”

            I shook my head. I knew the feeling. I had been treated the same way when a few people found out. Thank God it wasn’t common knowledge at school or I don’t think I could keep up the charade any more.

            I think Justin was about to say something else, but my nurse came over and started fussing over my IV Bag. “It looks like you’re all done for the day, sweet heart,” she said delicately. As if I was some fragile child or something.

            And as if on cue my phone started chiming. “Thanks,” I said forcing a smile and I quickly got to my feet. If that hadn’t made my head spin I would have forgotten all about the boy beside me. I turned to him sort of mumbled, “I gotta go. Sorry. It was nice talking to you. Maybe I’ll see you next time.”

            He nodded in understanding, the look on his face told me he couldn’t blame me for wanting to get the h*** out of there. Only a crazy person would want to stay any longer than they had to. That’s why neither of my parents could stomach staying with me, at first they made excuses for why they couldn’t stay, but eventually they stopped taking me altogether. My ride was my best friend Jesse, he had a car and I didn’t.

            I gave an awkward nod of my head, slung my backpack over my shoulder, and got the f*** out of there. The walls had started closing in on me during the silence before Justin broke it and it had caused me to break out into a clammy sweat, which was why my hair kept sticking to my forehead, I swiped it out of my face again. It took me two tries to get the door open because my palms were clammy as well, but eventually I got it open, dropped my bag into the floor boards and ducked into the car. Jesse barely waited for me to get my belt on before he pealed out of the back parking lot.

            He looked at me apologetically and mouthed ‘late,’ but I knew he wasn’t worried about making it to class he never minded unless it was his day to chauffer me to and from the doctor. It made him more uncomfortable than it did any of the others, but he refused to give up his days because he was my best friend after all.

            I leaned my head back against the seat rest and took shallow breaths in and out in and out to fight the nausea that was ripping through my stomach. It always hit me faster when I was with Jesse, he drove like a speed demon, and I couldn’t really say I blamed him, s*** I even appreciated it to a degree.

            We blazed through the school zone and I gave Jesse a ‘what are you up to’ look, but quickly dropped my head because it made my stomach heave. He slowed down and eased to car over to the side of the road and killed the engine.

            I pushed my first two fingers against my thumb, using the technique my doctor had showed me, and the urge to vomit subsided slightly. I was about to look up at Jesse then, and I immediately regretted it.

            “Kellin, you can’t keep this up,” he started, puffing out his chest like he was well prepared for an argument.

            Good because I sure as h*** was going to give him one. “What the f*** do you expect I should do?”

            He gripped and released the steering wheel over and over again, trying to keep his world famous temper in check. He tried to be a lot more patient with me these days, as if I would break if he weren’t walking on egg shells with me and got a little fiery. But d***it sometimes I needed fiery.

            “Quit treating me different! I’m not f****** made of glass! I have accepted my diagnosis, why can’t you?” I couldn’t help it the water works started welling up in my tear ducts, but it wasn’t all because of this fight. My head felt like it was being split open with an axe and my stomach was swirling like a hurricane. And I was so d*** tired.

            “Because you’re my best friend. You can’t check out before we get out of this hell hole! It’s not fair,” Jesse shouted and slammed his head down on the steering wheel; both of us flinched at the blaring of the horn.

            “It’s not like I have some Godd*** choice in the matter,” I muttered coldly and then added, “I’m so tired of fighting, Jess, I’m so tired. I just want to finish this round and then stop. I want to go to school and live normally until I can’t anymore.”

            Hurt washed over Jesse, he turned the key in the ignition and steered the car back onto the road. I just sat there willing myself not to prove him right and cry. I wanted to so bad. To let out all of the emotions I had been pinning back behind a mental dam, but I couldn’t do that in the front seat of Jesse’s car, I had class to get to.

            Instead of parking and walking in with me to my locker, like he usually did, Jesse pulled up in front of the school and pressed the automatic lock button. I took that as my cue to get my bag and leave, so I did without either of us saying one solitary word.

            I slung my bag over my shoulder and stomped off. He all but burnt out pulling away from the sidewalk. I took a few shallow breaths and entered what I could tell was going to be a long, long day.

            I kept my head down and pushed through the body of people when suddenly the room tilted on its axis and my vision blacked for a second before I rolled onto my side and emptied my stomach. I didn’t puke often in the beginning, but now it happened more often and it hurt so bad every single time.

            “S***, you okay, Bostwick?” a familiar voice asked, disgust coloring his tone.

            I rolled back onto my back and looked up. It was Tony Perry, who was dubbed Turtle in junior high, and someone else I didn’t recognize was standing at his side. I swiped my hand across my face and grunted. “Yeah, ‘m fine. Just feeling a little sick today. Shouldn’t have come.”

            “Dude, me and Gabe heard you throwing up in the bathroom last Friday. If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were knocked up.”

            He said it as an attempt at a joke, but his face told me that it wasn’t really something he found very funny. He helped me up before the puddle of puke got into my hair. I was surprised by his concern; he was Gabe’s friend, not mine.

            Once I got to my feet I decided on using my sarcasm to get out of an unwanted explanation. “Ha, ha, very funny. Contrary to belief, I do have a penis. So as much as I know you were looking forward to throwing me a killer baby shower, it’s not gonna happen.”

            He laughed but it was the uncomfortable sort. “Alright man, sorry we bumped into you. Oh, by the way, this is Mike Fuentes. He’s new.”

            “Hi,” Mike said looking at me with sad brown eyes, like he knew. But how could he possibly know?

            “Hey,” I replied taking in the new kid. He had to be in my grade, he looked young but way wiser beyond his years. Streetwise that is, I’d pencil him as an average student at best.

            “Well, we’ll see ya around, Bostwick, I’ve got to get him to his class so I’m not late,” Tony said, his level of discomfort was obvious in his voice.

            I just nodded and started to turn away when I heard Mike mutter, ‘see ya around’ as well. I didn’t have time to think about it though because quite a little audience had gathered, expecting a fight I’m sure, and I needed air.

            I speed walked out of the main hall and past the locker bay. I didn’t stop until I got to the room that was deemed the ‘Senior Court,’ but it wasn’t really a room. It was an atrium and even though I was just a sophomore and wasn’t really supposed to be there I needed air or I would have a repeat of what had just happened in the hall.

            I sort of collapsed onto one of the benches lining the brick walls. I just felt so weak and ill. I rolled onto my back and took deep heaving breaths and before I realized what was happening I felt hot tears streaming down my face and pooling at my neck, drenching my hair.

            I stayed that way, laying there sobbing my guts out for a long time, and I started feeling better. My tears eventually slowed and I heard a shuffle of feet and someone clear their throat.

            I rolled over quickly and looked in horror as person stepped out of the shadows and flicked out a cigarette. Swears slipped out, and my eyes surely bugged right out of my head when Mike stopped in front of me.

            He opened his mouth to say something and I realized that it wasn’t Mike. He was older and had different style hair, but those same almost sad looking brown eyes. He was, in my opinion, a more aesthetically pleasing Mike. Which only made the situation ten thousand times worse.

            “Look I won’t say anything, cause you look pale as f***, but out of curiosity why the tears?” the most magnificent voice I had ever laid ears on asked.

            He reached out and caught my wrist, yanking me into a sitting position, in swift motion, but he didn’t sit down. He just kept standing there, expecting an answer. And I had no idea what to tell him.

            “I’m not going anywhere until I know why,” he said in a soft tone that surprised me. Not that his voice had a particularly hard edge to begin with, but I wasn’t expecting the kindness. It’s the type of tone a guy would use after seeing another dude cry for an undefined amount of time.

            “I’ve got a lot of s*** going on in my life right now. It’s just hard to deal sometimes.” I stuffed my shaking hands in my pockets and kept my eyes low. I didn’t want to see his expression change. Because it was the truth, it just wasn’t a very detailed truth and I didn’t want to see his perfect face contort into disgust for me being so weak.

            The Mike look-alike nodded. “I can appreciate that. We just had to move to take care of my grandmother’s estate. She’s going to leave us a really nice house, though,” he murmured as if it were some sort of constellation prize and added, “My name’s Vic, and if it ever gets too much again come find me, okay?” he offered sincerely and then left through the same door I had entered before my little snot fest.


	2. Kells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this chapter. Vic is going to be so fun to write from here on out. Now that I've got his character good and figured out.

 

            When I finally got home from that God awful day I wasn’t surprised that the house was empty. It was a regular thing now. So instead of having to deal with another person I crawled into bed, kicked off my clothes and forced myself into a deep, drug induced sleep.

            I woke up feeling a lot better, not only physically, but emotionally and I saw that no one had come home while I was sleeping. Well, in theory they could have they would have just had to leave before I regained consciousness, I would have never heard them in my state of sleep.

            I took a shower as quickly as I could and it made me feel a little nauseous so I made a pot of coffee. For some reason my dad’s extra strong Columbian blend settled my stomach without making me drowsy like my anti-nausea meds. I poured myself a travel mug full and took a few drinks before getting dressed. I put on sweat pants simply because it was a Tuesday and my week had already started off so s*****, I just couldn’t force myself into my usual tight jeans.

            I sipped on my coffee and walked outside where Gabe was sitting patiently, in his beat up clunker. Excuse me, his weathered ‘stang as he liked to refer to it.

            “You look rough,” he commented sharply when I got in.

            I just shrugged and dug through my backpack to make sure everything was in order. It was. “I had a rough day yesterday.”

            Amusement colored his features as he backed out of the driveway. When he was able to shift the car into drive he turned to face me and got on with whatever he found so amusing. “Turtle told me what happened yesterday. You can be so sassy sometimes.”

            Ah, he was referring to the baby shower comment. He would be a smart a** too if he had just been embarrassed that badly. I dropped my bag into the floor boards and took another couple of drinks of my coffee before answering him. “Coping mechanism, compadre. So what’s the new kid’s story? Does he have a brother?”

            “God, Kellin, really taking an interest in Mikey? Why do you want to know if he has a brother? Don’t like guys your own age?” His tone was filled with ridicule, but that’s just Gabe. He wasn’t being a d*** that’s just how he was.

            I rolled my eyes. I knew it was a mistake to tell the guys that I on occasion fancied guys. Gabe threw it up in my face more than any of them. “I don’t have a thing for him, I just ran into someone that looked almost identical to him. Just older.”

            He shrugged somewhat apologetically and I realized that was all I was going to get from him. Then he seemed to have an afterthought. “Now that I think about it, I do remember Turtle mentioning something about Mike riding home with his brother instead of meeting up with him after school.”

            I nodded and looked through the window. It was almost October, but the sky looked like rain and it sort of looked like it was sprinkling, but Gabe was going too fast for me to really be certain. Not that he was as fast a driver as Jesse, not many people were that bad. At any rate we were almost at school and my coffee was cold so I couldn’t finish it. I’d dump it once we parked.

            “So Jesse tells me,” Gabe started, but I cut him off.

            “Don’t. I’m not kidding. I swear if you try another intervention with me I will get out and walk,” I snapped angrily and picked up my bag to illustrate my point.

            “How effective would that be? We are like two minutes walking distance from the school,” he said bringing his speed down so that he wouldn’t get another warning for speeding through the school zone.

            “It would be effective in shutting you up,” I snapped again clutching my bag closer in case I really did need to make my great escape.

            I didn’t though, he took the hint and the rest of the drive was silent, save for the low hum of the radio I hadn’t even realized was on. He circled the parking lot a few times until he found a decent space and as soon as I stepped out I dumped my coffee. It made a sickly splatter and it almost made me want to hurl.

            “D***, man, puking again?” he asked walking around the back of his ‘stang.

            I sighed. “No, just my coffee,” I explained and held up the mug as evidence.

            Gabe relaxed and waited for me to put away the mug and walk over to him so that we could walk in together. But we didn’t say anything, we just walked in silence. And when we got inside he saw Tony and Mike, plastered to his side, and left with them to get breakfast. I went to my locker, swapped out my books, and hauled a** to the photography room.

            Just as I expected Katelynne was there posed in front of the lens using the camera’s remote to snap frame after frame. She didn’t notice me as I slipped in and took a seat on a milk crate that was used as a prop. I watched her turn her head for different angles, and jut out her hip, and drop her shoulder. I knew what the point was, but I still found it amusing to watch her move in front of the camera. It looked like she was a model, a real model, not just some photography student trying to get an A for her self-portrait collage.

            It took her a while, but finally she noticed me. “Perv!” she teased and then asked, “How long have you been watching?” walking over to her very high tech camera. She picked it up off the stand and shuffled through the stills.

            I shrugged. “The last ten or twenty frames. You’re going to make a great model one day.”

            She looked up from the camera long enough to roll her eyes at me and said, “If I didn’t know you any better I’d think you were just trying to get in my high waist-ed pants.”

            But then she added more seriously, “I wish, but I think I’ll end up stuck behind the camera. I like it well enough.”

            “Oh, don’t I know it,” I retorted and then wrinkled up my nose thinking of all the times I had been dragged out into fields and been stuck in front of the wide angle lens. I apparently made a good muse because of the contrast my dark hair and pale skin made.

            She flashed me an apologetic smirk before she shifted her attention back to the small screen. “So how are you feeling? Jesse told me you had a rough day yesterday.”

            I sighed trying to keep my anger in check. I usually tried to be calm around Katelynne she was the only sane one of them. “I really wish you all would stop talking about me behind my back. But if you must know, my day was really awful. And I was humiliated twice yesterday,” I sighed.

            “I’m sorry, Kells, you know we are all just trying to help. And twice?” She asked cocking her head as if it had just registered.

            S***. Well, if I could discuss the whole Mike’s brother thing with anyone it would be Katelynne. “I ran into the Senior Court to get some fresh air and one of the new kids was out smoking. Only I didn’t know it at first and I had a mini break down. He told me if I ever needed to talk about life with him I could. I just wanted to die.”

            “Kellin,” she snapped obviously unhappy about my word choice and then set down the camera. She squatted beside me and threw an arm around my shoulders in support, “You shouldn’t be embarrassed. Maybe you should talk to him. Sometimes it’s easier to vent to a stranger. They keep your secrets better anyhow.”

            “Excuse me?” I questioned tilting my head.

            “You know that I have a good point, Kells, just listen to me for once,” she lectured pulling the memory card out of the camera.

            Before I could further object the bell rang signaling that breakfast was over and class would begin in roughly five minutes. Katelynne gave me a sideways glance before dashing off to her locker. I just laid my head in my hands and tugged at the ends of my hair in frustration. I thought I was over this whole feeling conflicted bulls***.

            Sighing dramatically, I left the photography room and hurried to my class. I made it just as the class bell was ringing and my crotchety old teacher gave me a look like I was complete scum and went back to writing up the lesson on the board. She was a big fan of self-teaching. Aka doing something that old people do while the rest of us worked on some bs assignment.

            —

            I leaned into the wall of lockers for support as I put away my books for the final time that day. I was mostly okay all day, but I got a little sick after lunch. I slammed my locker shut and told myself all I had to do was make the bus ride and then I was home free. I could sleep or puke or whatever my little heart’s desire.

            But I never made it to the bus. The second I walked away from the locker bay I had to full on sprint to the bathroom.

            My knees clattered to the hard tile floor and if I hadn’t been throwing up so violently I would have cried out in pain. I heaved maybe five times before I was finally finished and by that time the tears were streaming down my face as hard as I had thrown up. I flushed the toilet with a shaky hand and clambered out of the stall like it was poison. I draped myself over the sink and ran the tap until it was icy cold. I let the water pool in my hands before rinsing out my mouth and repeated the process until the taste of stomach acid wasn’t overbearing.

            When I left the bathroom I still hadn’t stopped crying and I thought that it would be okay because the final bell had rung long ago. But I guess I was wrong. There looking devastatingly handsome was the boy from the day before, Vic.

            “You’re crying again, but it’s not the same as yesterday. What’s wrong?” the older boy asked stepping closer.

            I used the back of my hand to dry my eyes and concentrated on ceasing the tear flow. It took a few shaky breathes to collect myself. “I’m just really sick today. Mentally I’m fine, I swear.”

            The new kid crossed his arms and used one hand to wipe his face. He looked to be surveying me to see if what I said held any truth, and technically it did. “Alright then, do you need a ride home?”

            I blinked a few times making sure I heard him correctly. When I was sure I did, I thought about the fact that I was out a ride. I decided earlier to boycott riding home with my friends for the rest of the week to avoid being trapped and lectured, and now I had missed the bus. So it seemed that Mike’s brother, a total stranger was my only option. “Sure, why not? Riding with a complete stranger should go well,” I replied the same way I would to one of the guys. I didn’t mean to it was like word vomit.

            “Just trying to be decent. You can always walk,” he countered, his amazingly thick eyebrows shooting up.

            “The satire was directed solely at myself, I assure you. I would really appreciate a ride, I feel like complete s***,” I admitted.

            He uncrossed his arms and gestured with his body for me to follow him, and said with his back turned to me, “If I wasn’t needed at home I would most definitely take you somewhere I go when I feel like s***.”

            I put my moderately lengthy legs to good use and caught up with him. “Thought you just moved here?” I could help but ask.

            He looked over at me out of the corner of his eye. “I’ve been here before. Dying grandma remember?”

            “Dying now is she?” I’m sorry to hear that.” Maybe his grandma and I should hang out. Sounds like we’ve got a lot in common.

            “We aren’t that close, but death is death, right? It’s just putting a lot of stress on the family,” Vic said as if he were talking about the weather.

            I felt like that was odd. I tried to sneak a peek at the look on his face, but it was void of any expression. And I couldn’t look very long or else I would get nauseas again. I thought about how I really wished that he would have parked closer, when we finally got to a rather flashy black and silver Camaro that seemed to be his.

            “Nice ride,” I commented stopping to admire the fine piece of machinery.

            A smirk graced his beautiful features and if it wasn’t such a gay thing to do, I would have swooned right then and there. “Thanks, it was a gift.” He pulled the keys from deep within his front pocket and unlocked it.

            I walked around to the passenger side and noticed that the silver I had saw was actually a design of a pair of wings. It was an odd choice for a car, but it surprisingly looked really cool.

            Vic was behind the wheel and starting the engine before I even got the passenger door open. I shook my head. Since when did I almost get a hard on for cars. The cancer must be getting to my brain. I stifled a snort at my horrible bleak and completely inaccurate observation.

            Vic directed his attention away from the windshield and over to me. “What’s so funny, kid?”

            “You should probably keep your eyes on the road. That’s what they said in Driver’s Ed anyway,” I deflected feeling like riding with him was a poor decision. Just because Tony hung out with his brother didn’t mean that he was safe.

            “Do you even have a license?” He shot back returning his attention to where it belonged.

            I grunted, crossing my arms. “My parents don’t think it’s a good idea. Plus, they’re too busy pretending I’m not tearing the family apart to be at home to take me to the DMV.”

            He cocked his head towards me, but still kept his eyes on the road. “How’re you tearing the family apart? You’re just a kid. Their kid.”

            S*** I hadn’t meant to say that. It’s like I forgot that he wasn’t one of the guys.

“They aren’t meant to have kids. Certainly not together.” I snapped adding, “And stop calling me kid. I’m not that much younger than you.”

The car rolled to a stop, but I wasn’t focused on that. I was focused on the beautiful stranger driving it. His whole demeanor shifted. “People tend to blame others when they feel like they are failing at something. You wouldn’t have been born to them if they weren’t meant to have you,” Mike’s brother said. And then he added sort of absently, “I’ve had a while to grow up. I forget how old I am physically, don’t take it personally.”

I tore my gaze away from the tanned stranger beside me to absorb what he had just said and my eyes fell somewhere out of the windshield, only to focus on my garage.

I jerked my head back to Vic so quickly that a wave of nausea rocked through me so violently I almost lost it in his car. Fighting back the vomit so hard I had to grit my teeth I asked, “What are we doing at my house?”

Vic’s thick dark eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean? Where else was I supposed to take you?”

My hand shot to my seat belt buckle and I undid it as I spoke. “I never gave you directions. You distracted me with conversation before I got the chance.”

            A flash of something crossed his beautiful face before it returned to an almost patronizing expression. “I told you I’ve been here before. I know the neighborhood well because of an ex. It didn’t take much to figure out you were the Bostwick’s kid.”

            “How come I’ve never seen you here before then?” I asked clutching my school bag.

            “It was one summer. Parents didn’t approve of our relationship. Said I was going to be dammed to hell,” he replied with an odd expression and a chuckle as if it were some private joke. “I spent a lot of time parking a couple blocks down and sneaking into a second story window.”

            I still had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach so I didn’t want to discuss it any further. “Alright. Well, I appreciate the ride. Uh, thanks again,” I stammered getting out of the gorgeous Camaro, almost feeling sad I didn’t get to spend more time with it.

            With a wink, Vic said, “No problem at all, Kells. I better get going as well. Let me know if life gets too bad again. I’ll take you to my hide away and make you forget it all for a while.”

            “Will do, thanks,” I muttered hurrying for the door. I was fighting back my nausea and a whole other churning in my stomach. He had just called me Kells something that only Katelynne ever called me. Well, that and Jesse when he was telling me something I didn’t want to hear, he learned that from Katelynne.

            

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me update faster!!! :P

**Author's Note:**

> SO I have chapter two written already, but comment about it please!


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